A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge Friday cleared the way for construction of a proposed $122 million Couture apartment and retail high-rise in downtown Milwaukee.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Christopher Foley ruled a 2014 state law that established a Lake Michigan lake bed boundary east of the transit center is valid.

The ruling clears title to the 2.2-acre Downtown Transit Center, at 909 E. Michigan St., so the county can sell it for redevelopment. The transit center would be demolished and replaced with a 44-story tower, under the plan.

Preserve Our Parks had claimed that most of the transit center was built atop filled lake bed so it is protected from private development by the state constitution's public trust doctrine. The doctrine declares navigable waters and the beds of navigable waters be held in trust for the use and enjoyment of the public.

The County Board in December agreed to sell the property to Couture developer Rick Barrett. But no title insurance company was willing to issue title insurance as long as the property's status under the doctrine remained uncertain, officials said.

In February, the county filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare state law as valid.

William O'Connor, Preserve Our Parks attorney, said the group will review its options on whether to appeal Foley's ruling. Foley, in his remarks from the bench, said he expected an appeal to be filed.

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele asked the parks watchdog group to make a quick decision on a possible appeal so the county can move forward with redevelopment.

The Couture project will create thousands of jobs and add a signature building to Milwaukee's skyline, Abele said in a statement.

In making his ruling, Foley agreed that the Lake Michigan shoreline boundary established by a 1913 state law was not the shoreline in 1848, when Wisconsin became a state.

But, Foley said, "In my mind, that's a big 'so what?'"

The main issue, Foley said, is whether Preserve Our Parks can overcome the presumption that the Legislature acted reasonably when it approved the 2014 law.

The Legislature thought that allowing the Couture development to occur on filled lake bed would have little effect on water interests, and bring significant public benefits, Foley said.

"There is just no way Preserve Our Parks can establish anything other than a negligible impact," he said.

The state law, requested by county officials, affirms the lake bed boundary is the 1913 shoreline created when the Chicago and North Western railway granted land it owned to the City of Milwaukee.

The two-mile-long boundary in downtown Milwaukee generally runs along Lincoln Memorial Drive. The entire transit center property is inland of that line.

But an 1884 map and 1879 survey map show that two-thirds of the transit center property rests on former lake bed, according to Preserve Our Parks.

Barrett Visionary Development has an option to purchase the property at a discounted price of $500,000.

The discount in the property's sales price from the $8.9 million appraised value was necessary to make the project economically feasible, according to County Comptroller Scott Manske and the county's consultant, Chicago-based S.B. Friedman & Co.

Designs for the proposed 44-story tower to be built there include: 302 high-end apartments, restaurant and retail space, a parking structure, a station for the city's downtown streetcar service, transit concourse for buses and a publicly accessible plaza.

About Don Behm

Don Behm reports on Milwaukee County government, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the environment and communities in southeastern Wisconsin. He has won reporting awards for investigations of Great Lakes water pollution, Milwaukee's cryptosporidiosis outbreak, and the deaths of three sewer construction workers in a Menomonee Valley methane explosion.